Former Kuju business development manager Joel Benton has launched a new digital download-only publisher called Easy Tiger.

Likening the company to a record label for musicians, Benton said that Easy Tiger will reverse the traditional publisher/developer business model by offering studios a way to keep their own IP.

“Quite naturally, developers want to build value in IP they ultimately own and engage in a dialogue directly with their audience and they are investing their own money in creating games for console download platforms to do that. However developers are struggling to do all the non-game activities that publishers normally undertake – specifically marketing,” he said.

“Unlike typical publishers, whose retail sales bias keeps them from fully understanding the download space, Easy Tiger wants to be invisible to the consumer. The developers are the stars and it's high time they claimed their place in the spotlight.”

Working in association with digital download marketing and promotions agency PlayReplay, Easy Tiger will offer production support across QA and localisation for smaller developers.

“Consumers want to buy games and connect with the creatives that made them, not the suits that fund them. Unlike traditional publishers, Easy Tiger provides that infrastructure,” Benton added. “Our infrastructure has no retail sales and marketing baggage and supports a model for the new, digitally distributed age where the developer, not the publisher, is king.”